Also try this:
Some people may not like the idea of snaring these varmints, but they can and do carry disease.
I live in Michigan (Magslinger points with his right index finger to a point on the back of his left hand midway between the lowest knuckle of his middle finger and wrist.) In a couple of weeks we will be moving to new digs in the same area. The bright side is that for the first time in my life I will have enough room to make a decent sized garden. I am very much looking forward to that.
I have identified some potential problems with our new place. The location is near three large city parks, two cemeteries and two golf courses. It is infested with deer, has hot and cold running woodchucks and yet is within city limits. If it weren’t for the last, I could very easily reduce the other two problems with some 12 ga. slugs and a brick or two of .22LR. As it stands I am going to need some advice on what may work to keep uninvited pests out of the garden. I would appreciate any advice on how to keep ‘chucks from burrowing under out buildings and porches as well.
Deer pretty much do what they want unless you build a very high fence they cannot jump over. A fence will also keep rabbits and ground hogs out.
We had ground hogs burrowing under our front porch (concrete slab). We tried moth crystals blown down the holes and fox urine (no effect), loud music piped down the hole, filling the holes with crushed stone and concrete (they just dug a new entrance holes), .22 use (got a couple) and have a heart traps (we let them go miles from here, but new ones always took their place).
This went on for years. Once in a while a skunk would decide to invade the burrow and we were treated to that wonderful smell in our basement.
If you want them removed professionally, it will cost you about $250 a pop.
Look into a con-a-bear trap if you want lasting results. Obviously, you have to keep household pets, children, etc. away from it. Then fill all the holes with crushed stone and concrete. Wash, rinse, repeat as needed.
Not sure you can still buy carbon tet, but I suspect that the seed fumigant like phosphene gas pellets that will do the same job.
You can be fairly successful with a whole lot of commitment to your fencing.
To aggressively head off groundhogs you’ll need to have a fence(of course)both above and below ground.
Here is what we do around here:
four foot tall open wire “lawn fencing” (green coated as it blends in better)around the entire garden, with a gate. Along the bottom you make a trench at least six inches ( but eight is better) deep and stick chicken wire down the trench, then attach the top edge of the chicken wire to your “yard fencing”. Backfill trench.
There is another way to do that which requires removing the sod from the yard fence “out” to about a foot away from the fence, and at least three inches deep. You lay the chicken wire down where the sod was lifted, working back to the yard fencing, and bend it up to fit against the fence. I use zip wires to secure. Then you replace the sod.
Once you do all of that, you think about the deer. We have gotten the six foot bamboo “stakes” from lowes, and secure them them halfway up the yard fence at regular intervals, again using zip ties. That gets us about eight feet up. Then we go round the contraption with black wildlife netting-zip ties to secure.
The deer will sometimes jump it anyway, but very rarely. During our short growing season they don’t want to take the risk and would rather eat from their natural menu.
We still have trouble with rabbits - I didn’t get that section of the fence addressed in time. But there is always next year.
Anyway, it doesn’t look an eyesore though you might expect from my description. The green coated fence blends in and the black wildlife netting is barely noticeable.
Check the fur-trapping laws in your state.
May I suggest a Mathews Solocam with carbon arrows and fixed broadheads??? Bow is silent and deer are tasty. I can help.
A fence for the deer. Mine is reinforced around the bottom with rabbit fencing to keep them out,as well. Woodchuck? I have no idea, as I have those too. If they can burrow under buildings (and their burrows are in all 3 of my barns) I don’t see what good it does to bury your fence wire under the ground. But, the woodchucks have never bothered my veggie garden.
What they have bothered are any planters that I have filled with annuals and perennials at the beginning of the season, if they are placed far away from the house. I’ve given up on having a large pot of flowers at the entrance to the drive, for instance. Those cruel woodchucks just uproot all the little flowers I plant and throw them on the ground to wither and die. They will destroy a container of freshly planted petunias, marigolds, or impatiens the first night that it is out.
I have a neighbor who is a real farmer (her family has farmed here on the same land more than 100 years), and she has an unfenced veggie garden every year in her front yard. I happened to see her the other day and asked how she keeps the deer away. She laughed and said that they destroy her garden every year — eat everything except what grows under ground. I don’t know why she doesn’t get her hubby to put a fence around it.
When my dad found a gopher hole in our yard, he’d stuff the hose down it and flood the burrow. It worked. Maybe it would work for you, although those would be large holes. Be careful not to undermine your structures.
Also try this:
Some people may not like the idea of snaring these varmints, but they can and do carry disease.
I have used one of these for the last 5 years on rabbits and possums.
They are quiet, and even legal in some locations. I think they are legal here. If not, I have friends on the police force and on the municipal court bench!
I just thought of something to share that I learned this summer, quite by accident, about plantings that repel 4 legged pests.
Some of you may remember my efforts to plant a pot of something pretty out by my new swing in an area that I can not protect from deer, rabbits, woodchucks, etc. I had a very large, terra cotta pot that looks like it has been tipped over with the plants spilling out. I filled it with more than 2 1/2 cu. feet of potting mix — 1 1/2 large bags. So, you can visualize the size.
The folks at my local garden center were not much help, but I came home with 2 4 in. pots of sweet potato vine and 3 gazanias and planted them in a nice arrangement. The gazanias became a rabbit salad bar immediately and lasted about 3 days. The sweet potato vines are still going strong. Despite no care and no water, they have quintupled in size and are spilling all over the place. They look really pretty too. Next year I’ll plant a combination of the yellow-green vines and the “black” ones.
My point is that the deer and the rabbits won’t touch the sweet potato vines. They would make a nice edgeing around a garden full of plants (like lettuce) that you want to “save” from the rabbits. I have not seen sweet potatoes on any list of deer and rabbit resistent plants, but my guys shun them.
Even though sweet potatoes are not a plant that is grown, normally, in Wisconsin, I’ll bet that I have some potatoes growing underneath because I’ve experienced that outcome before.
Just thought I’d add that suggestion to the usual daffodils and marigolds.